


Falling With Grace

by RuminantRambling



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Blood and Injury, Gen, Murphy's Law, War, unknown crest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 19:53:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29846643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RuminantRambling/pseuds/RuminantRambling
Summary: Grace is an accident that has happened, is in the middle of happening and will happen again.  She joins the Blue Lions and learns much about herself.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	Falling With Grace

Arrival at Garreg Mach the day before classes begin is great she tells herself. She is not going to miss the first day of class. That she made it at all is great. She has most of her belongings. The boat ride was awful and delayed because of the storms. She missed her first appointed ride here, and the second wagon lost a wheel. Her black eye from falling while trying to get into the cart hardly is visible any more. The fact that they don’t have student uniforms in her size at the time of her arrival really doesn’t matter. The ones she has are a bit baggy, but soon she will have time to fix it and everything will be fantastic.

Grace steps into the Blue Lions classroom, the door smacking her in the back as she crosses the threshold. Her books are knocked from her hands, loudly slamming onto the floor, announcing her arrival as everyone turns to stare at the new girl. She nervously waves and apologizes for the noise as she finds a seat in the back of the class. Putting her cup of water down on the desk, she grabs her books from the floor and slides into her seat. Great way to start of the school year, she chides herself. Her hair will not cooperate today, of course, poofing around her head like a scared cat’s tail. It doesn’t help that it is incredibly curly to begin with. She hopes growing it out longer would help pull it out straighter, but it makes it look poofier.

The Professor in the front of the class introduces themself and calls roll. “Grace Murfree?”

Grace reaches up to raise her hand to say something to the teacher, knocking over her cup of water onto her books. “Here” she groans. She’ll have to inform the professor to correct her name another time.

The professor outlines the curriculum, expectations of the Church and duties of the students. Grace takes notes and notices that many of the students appear to know each other. A redheaded and blonde girl giggle between themselves on one side of the room, while two boys on the other side entertain themselves by kicking each other frequently.

A bell rings and the professor dismisses class for lunch, then they are to report to the training area for weapons assessments. Grace tries to wait for the teacher, however it appears there are several other students to speak with the professor as well, so she runs to her dorm outside the greenhouse and drops her books except for a notebook and heads to the dining hall.

She holds out her tray for someone to unceremoniously plop something green then something brown and lumpy onto her plate. She reaches for a dessert dish, just in time for someone to try to put something next to her and hers flips off onto the counter. There were cherries on the bottom. Glad she missed that, last time she ate the fruit she got a rash. She walks off with an empty plate on her tray and finds a seat at the end of the Blue Lions table. She takes a seat next to a very large white haired man. He reminds her of her father. A strong jaw and few words. By the time he notices her, she’s already finished and is leaving.

Grace makes her way to the training area. Meandering around she finds some throwing axes. She throws a half dozen at the target at the far end. The girl gives her full attention to the throwing axes, flipping one in the air as she walks back to the line. Throwing at the target again, she has a good feel for the axes, getting close to zeroing in on the center mark. She is retrieving and throwing axes until the room starts to gain a few additional students. The professor assesses the abilities of the students making each of them spar with other students with swords, lances and axes. 

Professor Byleth calls the brunette girl over for her assessment. “Murfree, show me what you can do.” The student proves to be decent with lances, axes, spears, and throwing axes. The teacher wants to know what her aversion to swords is all about.

Grace answers shyly, “Incredibly sharp pointy things usually wind up hurting me more than others. I’m cursed. I don’t know what it is about them, they are drawn to me like a magnet. I have a lot of bad luck with them.”

Byleth’s face shows no reaction. “There is no such thing as luck. Have you tried to wield magic before?”

“No, where I grew up only the nobles and upper ranking officials or military were entitled to learn magic.” She quietly replies.

“I am going to pair you with Annette for a while, we’ll see if any natural talents develop.” The professor walks away and heads to the next student for their assessment.

Grace goes over and speaks with Annette, the redheaded girl. They decide to get together on their free day and will meet for tea at eleven. Grace agrees to bring treats.

Grace arrives at Mercedes door exactly at eleven. She is ushered into the room and the other two ladies ooh and ahh at the lovely dessert that she has brought. Layers of different fruit filled cakes are seen in a tall thin glass, the cakes being separated by thick, sweet, whipped cream and fresh berries.

“Parfaits! They are beautiful!” Mercedes exclaims clapping her hands.

Annette eagerly grabs a glass for herself. “How did you come up with the idea? This is so perfect!”

“Well, originally I had bought 3 cute little cakes from the bakery in town, however I tripped over a root and they kind of crumbled in the box. But then I thought of what to do with them, stopped at the kitchen and here we are.” Grace shyly explains.

Mercedes pours tea and they discuss the basics of healing magic, theories of it and begin teaching the spell to the new student.

“Now you don’t have to really heal something when you’re practicing. I say that because one girl back in the school of sorcery kept cutting herself and healing the wound. We stopped her when we found out of course.“ Mercedes smiles sweetly.

“Does it work on bruises too? Can we practice on those? I have a few.” Grace offers lifting her skirt to show two purple bruises on her shin.

Annette looks surprised. “When did that happen?”

Grace blushes, “I was going up the stairs to the library this morning and missed a step, banged my shin.”

Annette raises her skirt showing a bruise above her ankle, “Barrels. Was going to the greenhouse and was distracted.”

“I can see why Professor Byleth put us together.” Grace said as they all laughed.

Between the two more experienced magic users, Grace comprehends the basics of healing magic and able to memorize and cast the spell.

A battle with bandits is on the agenda for the day. The Blue Lions led by Professor Byleth head out before the sunrise to a town a few hours walk to the east of the monastery. There they find the village leaders that thinks there is a band of bandits in the woods not too far away to the northwest. The Professor leads the students into the woods to see if they can locate them. Suddenly a bunch of leather and metal clad bandits are in front of them with weapons drawn, running right for them. Sylvain and Felix go forward with their weapons at the ready. Annette fires off a wind spell, sending two of the attackers back further into the trees. Dimitri, Dedue, and the Professor are attacking the ones on the right with Ashe close behind, firing arrows at enemies just a bit further away.

Felix finishes with a bandit and steps forward looking for another when Grace see’s past him that there is one emerging from a hiding place behind a tree, axe held high.

“Felix! There.” She yells.

This causes Felix to look back at her, taking a misstep on some slimy moss, causing the swordsman to fall flat on his behind as the axe that was aimed at his head misses. Grace whips two throwing axes into the bandit’s chest as he falls backwards to the ground. She runs to the indigo haired man, offering him a hand up.

“What the hell, Murphy.” Felix says, getting up on his own, brushing himself off a bit. He runs over to catch up with the Professor.

When all the bandits have been dispatched, they find a small campground with several tents. Gathering what items appear to have been stolen, they take them back to the leaders of the village who are happy to have their belongings returned.

A week later Grace is on stable duty with Sylvain. Together they are mucking the horses’ stalls. They do a decent job together. Sylvain loves horses and spending time with the beautiful beasts. It is more of a pleasure than a chore to him. Since it is getting dark and cold, they lit a torch by the door so they could finish the job before it gets too late. Grace leaves with two huge buckets to get water for the horses. Sylvain puts his rake on his shoulder as he is scratching a beautiful warhorse under its chin, suddenly he’s startled by a bang on the door and Murphy’s sudden call out of his name. He had piled some muck in front of the door and it would not open. Hearing the bang and the yell causes him to turn around quickly, the muckrake pulling the torch loose from its stand, falls down on the straw on the ground. The torch catches the dried grass and straw on fire. The floor is ablaze! Grace gives the door one good shove with her posterior, the door flies open and she’s knocked off balance, falling over spilling all the water on the ground, the lit straw and herself. The fire thankfully is out. It still takes another forty five minutes to finish the stables, all the while Sylvain keeps telling her she smells like horse poop soup.

Time for practice in the training hall. Most of the students know better than to stand behind Grace, but sometimes there is a new kid who shows up to try something new. She’s been practicing throwing hand axes for 25 minutes with no problems. She doesn’t notice there is a blonde kid coming up, standing behind her. She throws the first axe, one circle off from center of the target. She takes the second axe in hand, pulls back and thwack! It’s at the edge of the bulls eye!. Grace grabs her third axe, pulls back, the head flies off and smacks the kid behind her.

“Eeep!” where did you come from! I’m so sorry!” Grace apologizes as the kid is bleeding from his forehead. At least she’s been improving at white magic, she heals the wound quickly, then escorts the kid to the infirmary to check for a concussion. Out of the corner of here eye she thought she saw Claude and someone else exchanging money. 

Grace searches all over the Monastery. She asks the gatekeeper and he had not seen Claude in a while. She goes to the second floor of the dorms, tripping up the last step, to see if Claude is up there in his room. No answer at his door. She makes it back down the stairs and heads to Hilda’s room, but not before banging her shin on a barrel. Grace knocks on the door.

“Come on in, Grace!” Hilda calls.

Grace opens the door. “Wait, how did you know it was me? I didn’t say anything.”

Hilda giggles. “I just know.”

“Have you seen Claude. I want to ask him something.” Grace has both hands on her hips and looking very stern.

“Oooh. Is he in trouble? I can help you beat him up if you want!” Hilda almost goes through the effort of getting up from her chair, almost.

“No. Yeah. I’m not sure. I think I caught him …betting on me.” Grace groans, her shoulders sag.

“Pffft. You know how Claude can be. Anything for fun. But why bet on you?” Hilda asks with pure innocence in her eyes.

Grace shakes her head. “You know. I’m a clutz. Inelegant. Uncoordinated. I fall over in the slightest wind. My dad always said I was a moose in a teapot shop.”

“D’awwww. Yeah, you kinda knock things over a lot, but you’re kinda cute too.” Hilda tries to counter.

“I’m out of control. I can’t control my hands and elbows, or my feet. Or even my hair. I’m a wild tornado filled with danger. I would understand if there was a war and I was sent to the other side to mess them up.” The sad girl whines.   
“You’re not that bad. I think. Anyway, I have this conditioner you can try on your hair, it has some kind of straightener in it. That may help.” The pinkette reassures her. “Don’t worry about Claude. He can be a little weird, but he means well.”

Conand tower. A terrible ancient, abandoned fortification now filled with murderers and thieves. The professor and the Blue Lions were sent here to bring back the Lance of Ruin. Grace has been in the Lions long enough to know Sylvain’s background stories. His horrible brother that left him to die at the bottom of a well and all the times he beat him up. Yet Sylvain feels responsible for him. He’s here now to clean up his brother’s mess and hopefully to bring him in. The path winds around and around the tower, sometimes the thieves that work for Miklan can take a shot from above at the Lions moving up from below, especially archers.

“Felix! Watchit!” Grace calls.

This makes the swordsman turn around and bump into Annette, they both fall over.

“What the hell! Shut up!” Felix yells at Grace.

Sylvain shakes his head at the brunette girl, not looking at her and helps Felix and Annette back up.

But the Professor catches in the corner of their eye, the arrow that was headed straight for the swordsman’s head missed as well as the arrow for Annette.

Grace feels bad. She knows she is the one that made Felix fall into Annette. Now he is embarrassed and angry at her. She stays to the back of the group. Hanging out with Mercedes is nice. She is always kind. And Gilbert is, um, quiet. They march behind the students and Professor, taking out more and more bandits as they move closer to the top.

Grace hears a noise coming from behind her. “Gilbert! Move!” she shouts.

Gilbert turns and steps back on to a wet spot from the leaking tower’s roof, losing his footing and falling backwards. Grace is able to reach over him, knocking the spear down that had been heading for his gut. Gilbert swings his lance low, knocking the legs out from under the next thief so that Grace could take them out with her axe. She then apologizes and helps the knight to his feet.

The brown haired girl frowns when she hears Sylvain quip to Felix about when she yelled and Gilbert fell that it was lucky she didn’t make him break his hip. Maybe she should keep her mouth shut. She sticks out her bottom jaw, determined to keep quiet and simply fight. Staying in the back with Gilbert, they constantly check behind them to watch for any bandits coming from the rear. There are a few that jump out of the shadows, however the two of them keep the rest of the Lions safe, especially the magic users that are right next to them. In no time, they arrive at the top of the tower. She watches the fighting between Sylvain and Miklan, how the older brother turns into a huge and terrible beast because he used the Lance of Ruin without having a crest. Now everyone is battling the monster that Miklan transforms into. The monster roars so loud that it causes some of the bricks of the tower itself to fall. She watches that some of the falling stones bounce off a buttress, a huge stone is headed for Felix. Instead of yelling she runs and pushes him over, the stone smashing into her right pauldron, knocking her to the ground.

Mercedes is able to keep Grace from fainting with a few healing spells. Grace tries to stay back from the fight. Her throwing arm is the one that is hit by the stone, so she can’t help in the battle. She watches the monster’s tail begin to swing and she knows it is headed straight for Dedue. She starts to run towards him, then feels confused for a moment. The next second she hears the Professor yelling at her.

“Grace! If you see something, yell!” The professor orders.

She isn’t going to disobey the professor, and not a moment later she yells, “Dedue! Watch, the tail is going to hit you!”

The huge man, instead of keeping to his current action, tries to step back, slipping on blood that had previously spilled and he falls flat on his stomach, just as the monster’s huge and heavy tail flies over him. He is then able to scramble out of the beast’s reach. Dedue and Dimitri then both hit the beast with their lances, causing deep wounds. Sylvain lands the final killing blow. It’s a long sad march back to the monastery. She is soaked to the skin, not only from the rain but also from falling into a ditch when she slid on the mud.

The Professor meets with Grace and Annette on the training grounds.

“Listen. Don’t take this the wrong way.” The Professor begins, “But you two bump into things more frequently than the rest. I’m not complaining. This is just an observation. “

Annette’s face turns completely red as she tries not to look up from the ground. Grace has already accepted her fate as the greatest clutz of all time so she’s fine.

“This is a private lesson. I want to teach you two the best way to fall, be knocked over or otherwise land without getting yourself hurt.“

Annette does okay in the private lesson. Grace takes every single move to heart. She flings herself to the ground, learning the best ways to fall, what to fall on, what to protect, how to curl and roll with it, expending and using the force to help you stand up again, recover, and work to get back to fighting. By the time they are done, Grace has some ideas of areas of her armor she may be able to pad to save on a few bruises for herself. To her, falling is part of walking and everyday life. You expect it sometime during the day, then you get up and go on.

Kitchen duty is something Grace is used to doing. She helped cooking a lot at home and hardly ever burned the house down. Besides, when storms were really bad in the area, everyone came to their house because it was completely built with stone and bricks by the time she was 12. She is really good at making bread too. Bread is fun because you can punch it and beat it up and punch it some more and the more you did that the better it tastes. Bread is amazing for taking your frustrations out on. After you’ve beat it up for an hour and let it rise, well, you have bread! She forms the last loaf of bread for dinner. She looks at the clock in the courtyard to let it rise properly before the next step. She’s been working on the master cooks recommended recipe from “Baking Bread for 100-500 starving people” page 147 and 148. 

Just as she washes the sticky dough and flour from her hands wrists and forearms, okay, to up past her elbows, Sylvain finally wanders into the kitchen.

“Sorry I’m late..” he starts.

“Whatever. I’ve been here getting things going. Just so you know, you get to dry and put the dishes away.” Grace cuts him off before he gives any reason as to why he is late, its always the same one anyway.

The tall redhead closes the door to the kitchen to check the list of prospective dishes to serve. He decides on the third selection, grabs the book from the shelf and places it on top of the book that Grace was using. He flips to page 198 and is going to make a red meat sauce and pasta. He sets a huge pot of water to boil and gathers ingredients from the shelves. Placing all of the spices to the right side of the cookbooks that are in the center of the counter, he heads down to the storage room where the cooler items are kept. Bringing up meats and assorted cheeses as well as a few select vegetables he places them out on the counter.

There is a knock on the door to the kitchen, Grace answers finding it’s the Professor making sure they are present for their assigned duties, Grace grabs onto the hat on her head, there is quite a bit of a breeze outside that tries to rush in past her as she’s talking with the teacher. Once that is settled she returns to helping Sylvain with the sauce.

The cavalier is already at the stove with olive oil at a high heat tossing in chunks of mashed garlic and onions. He then heads to a different countertop to start dicing up a sack full of tomatoes. The much shorter axe wielder checks Sylvain’s recipe, that was page 219 right? She sees that there are ingredients missing from the list and heads back down to get cream and butter. She grabs a deep frypan throwing in a couple pounds of butter.

“Hey Felix, you in here?” Caspar sticks his head in the door, a couple leaves that have fallen from the trees blow in and a couple pages flutter over on the cookbook.

“He is training. I’m on kitchen duty tonight.” Sylvain groans miserably. “He was going to cook but then traded with me so he could do Greenhouse duty tomorrow instead.”

“Gotcha!” Caspar says as he closes the door.

Sylvain dumps the onions into the pan and puts the lid on. Grace flips back to page 148 where she was working on the bread. It says to put melted butter on top with cheddar and Gautier cheese crumbled. And add Oregano? Uh. Okay.” So she brushes the raised loaves of bread, three at a time with butter sprinkling spice and cheese on top before tossing them in the oven. She loads 9 per oven, 27 total, and flips the kitchen timer over that says “bread” on it, letting the sand slowly slip from the top to the bottom.

“Hey, you changed the page. You’re always messing things up!” The taller redhead hollers at the smaller brunette. He flips his book back to page 198. He sees 3 cans of spice, must be the ones he pulled out for the recipe before, and adds, about, give or take, a tablespoon of each. Grace looks inside the pot in front of her cohort. “Where’s the meat?”

“I knew I forgot something. So what now?” The experienced lance user, not known for his experience in the kitchen, is perplexed.

“Got it!” Grace winks at him. “We know some people aren’t too much for meat, so we cooked it separate to make up for those guys.”

“Yeah.” He agrees. “So you cook it.” He steps back, waiting for something to blow up.

“Ugh. Me and my big mouth.” She groans. But that garlic onion thing he started with before smelled like a good start. She mashes a handful of cloves of garlic, crushes some garlic and throws it in some olive oil and adds some minced onions. While that starts, she cuts the meat up into bite sized pieces. She’s not sure what kind of meat it is. Dark red and not quite so dark. Sounds good. She throws salt and pepper on it because you can never go wrong with those two spices.

“Sylvain! Keep stirring! I gotta rescue the bread!” Grace orders as she makes him reach over her while she’s pulling bread out of the ovens left and right. They are a bit dark and crispy and smell..good. Nice!

The redheads arms are plenty long and he is able to keep out of the way from being roasted alive by the heat of the ovens and still able to stir so the meat is cooked quite evenly. They decide at the last minute to drain the grease from the meat and serve it from a warmed crock.

The head cook bursts into the kitchen, just in time to start plating dishes and critiquing the students and their cooking. Martha checks the pasta. Hmmm. “Put on a little early, it will be a bit overcooked, still edible. Passes.” She checks the sauce, takes a spoonful, sniffs at it a few times, then blowing on it to cool it. Her eyes narrow, causing the two students to step back cautiously. The head cook takes a fork, stabbing two pieces of meat, and holding it in front of her nose. She then dunks them into the sauce on her spoon and chews. She thinks. She chews some more. “Meats compliment each other, Spiced decently. At first I thought the rosemary would not go well, however with the choice of the two different meats, it brings a sweetness to it that is needed for the Duscur bear to be tamed a bit.” Martha turns to the bread, slicing a piece from the center. She has to sniff it again (maybe that is why her nose is so big, from overuse thinks Grace) then take a bite. “I was wondering what was going on with the simple French bread, however going with the pasta and tomato-based sauce accompaniment, the sharp and spicy cheesy flavor of the bread really compliments it quite well. The meal itself passes as very palatable. I will inform the professor. For now, let’s plate it and serve it for dinner.”

Since Sylvain is the taller, he puts the food on the plates while Grace cuts the freshly baked bread, sets it on the plates and leaves the plates out for the students. She asks for a new meatless plate here and there, most of the students have a need for great amounts of protein with all the weapon work they do. There is finally a break in the students and the students take a step back. Nobody in the dining hall looks like they are dying. The dining hall is full, so nobody is avoiding it. (Oh the shame when Flayn cooks and only Seteth, Raphael and Dimitri are sitting and eating.) A group from the training grounds comes in and the kitchen kids have to get back to work for a while. Finally, the head cook allows them to take a couple plates for themselves and sit for a bit before they have to be back in the kitchen.

Sylvain digs in, he’s definitely worked up quite the appetite. He doesn’t stop until his plate is half empty to take a breath. “Not bad. I’m a pretty good cook!”

Grace hesitantly takes a bite, it is good. Like nothing she’s had here before. They were using the same cookbooks the chef here uses. She recalls the comments Martha was making. Simple French bread? Then why did the recipe say two different cheeses? This is so confusing.

Finishing their meal, Grace heads back to the kitchens to clean up. Sylvain said he’ll be there in a minute Grace heads directly to the cookbook she was using. But why are there two cookbooks there? The one on the bottom is the bread cookbook…oh..did Sylvain put his book on top of her cook book? Page 147 French bread. Yes. That is it. Page 148 is baking instruction Nothing else. But? Hmm. She checks the book Sylvain was using, page 148 oooh. There’s the cheeses and butter and spice. She checks the recipe that Sylvain was working on, she thought it was page Two hundred something teen, but it was 198? Well, all the spices on the counter certainly weren’t needed for this. She grabs the spices on page 198 and puts them away. Just as she turns around, the redhead comes in, with a full Autumn breeze behind him blowing the pages of the cookbook over. Grace looks down, this isn’t page 198, but there are other spices on this page that look like the ones on the counter. She quietly grabs both cookbooks and puts them on the shelf. This is just another one of her kitchen disasters. As long as she doesn’t break too many dishes, she’ll escape without more ammo for the redhead to pick on her.

Grace has never been to Abyss. It’s where the Ashen Wolves are found. Nice close knit group of kids, a bit older than the rest but they are pretty cool. Since she’s going to be underground she wears some of her older thicker pants to keep warm. Dangit, these pants have a tear at the bottom hem, but she doesn’t have time to change them. Meeting up with Hapi, she follows her around in the corridors of Abyss until they arrive outside under the huge bridge that leads to the Cathedral.

“This looks like a good place for throwing axe practice.” Grace announces.

“I thought it would be. Nobody around, lots of room to throw and miss. I come out here for spell casting practice sometimes.” Hapi agrees.

Grace marks up some dead and dying trees to use as targets. They practice throwing at the targets on the trees. They’ve been throwing the same ten throwing axes, and of course, one of the heads has to come off when Grace is winding up to throw, it knocks a large branch off of a tree over Hapi’s head, where it falls, nearly smashing the poor redheaded girl.

“I am so sorry. It’s just my bad luck acting up.” Grace bemoans.

“What. I don’t believe in that junk. Things just happen or they don’t. What’s luck got to do with it?” Hapi asks.

“I know you’ve not been around me much, but bad things always happen. Felix won’t battle near me. Mercedes says I’m haunted. Sylvain thinks I am a curse. Just now you were almost hit by that huge limb. You could have wound up with a broken arm or worse.” The brunette tries to explain her propensity for accidents surrounding her.

“That’s just dumb.” Hapi says and continues with practice.

After another few minutes, Balthus comes outside to join them.

“Hey. Yuri wants to have a meeting with us. Mind if we take Hapi for a bit?” he announces.

Hapi heads back to the entrance of Abyss, tripping over the branch that had fallen earlier. As she gets up she notices a birds nest filled with shiny objects, so she picks it up and takes it with her. Later she finds it was filled with shiny stones and a cool bracelet. Must have been a magpie nest.

Still outside, the weather suddenly changes from overcast to rain. Grace heads inside to stay dry. She kinda sorta knows the way back to where she came from, so she heads down the corridors of the underground city. She stops at a junction and decides to take a left, those walls sort of look more familiar than the ones to the right. She makes a few more turns and then isn’t so sure anymore, but she won’t get anywhere standing still, so she keeps moving. She comes to a sharp turn, then steps on her torn pants which causes her to fall head first towards the wall, she moves forward with her shoulder like Byleth taught, hit the shoulder, not the head. She hits it full force and the bricks tumble down on her knocking her out cold.

She grabs her head, it hurts because…because she fell, right. Maybe she should invest in a helmet. That sounds like a good idea right now, Grace thinks as she moans because her head is really throbbing now.

“Hey friend. Stay still. You took a nasty fall there.” Yuri taps the girl on her shoulder as he sits down next to her on the bed.

Grace opens her eyes and blinks until she can see a single purple headed Abyssian in front of her instead of three.

“Can you tell us why you were using your head as a battering ram against the walls?” Yuri quips.

Grace takes a deep breath. “I was just trying to get back with you guys and I tripped over myself and fell and now I’m here. Did I break something? I can pay for it. I’m sorry. With my luck I made a whole wall collapse or something dumb like that. Was anyone hurt?”

Yuri stands. “Nope, everyone is fine. It was just a hole about the size of, uh, you.”

“Tell her, Yuri-bird.” Hapi says sternly.

“Yeah, I should mention that on the other side of the wall was a stash of gold and things. We’ve moved it to a secure place, but if nobody claims it, I guess it’s finders keepers.” Yuri informs her.

Grace still looks a bit confused, “But I didn’t really find it. You guys found me and you found it, so it belongs to you. I thought you guys would be mad about me breaking walls and things around here enough to kick me out.”

“If you busting through walls around here leads to a stash like this, be our guest!” laughs Balthus.

Grace starts to shake her head then winces. “The only thing it leads to for me is the infirmary. I probably should go get checked. I have my own reserved cot by now.”

Yuri takes her to the infirmary. Manuela sashays over to the cot Grace is placed in.

“Let me guess,” the Professor grins. “Falling down stairs? Tripping over a barrel? Slipped in the greenhouse?”

“Head broke through a brick wall.” Yuri deadpans.

“Oooh. New one for the list. I’ll put that next to got scared from stepping on a cats tail and fell into a water trough.” Manuela grins as she begins to look over the brunette girl.

“Definitely a good concussion. I can feel two lumps on her head. Thanks for bringing her in.” the Professor waves.

Grace is called in to Hanneman’s office. Byleth made the appointment for her. She has no idea why. Nobody in her family ever had a crest before. They don’t just disappear for years and show up again do they?

The professor examines her as she pulls her blouse up over her back, pokes at her stomach and then finally he takes some of her blood. He asks her to put her arm in the crest analyzer. It flashes a few squiggly lines briefly then goes dark. The professor looks it over, checks a few wires.

“Hmm. Maybe it needs to be calibrated. I will check again at a different time.” Hanneman advises.

The ball is mandatory for all students. Grace shows up, even though she doesn’t really know how to dance. But there is lots of food and friends hanging out. She sits at the Blue Lions table. Dedue offers to get her a plate of food, and he returns with two. He even talks with her about the flowers on the centerpieces. He is such a nice guy. He leaves her ‘holding’ the table so that nobody could take it or swipe their chairs. Ingrid shows up and sits next to her. They chat and talk about the food. When one of her plates was empty, Ingrid volunteers to get the brunette some more, no need for her to get up, she’d be happy to do it. Of course the Pegasus rider returns with three places, one for Grace and two for herself. Ashe then sits down on her other side, talking to her about how the ball reminds him of some of the parties in those stories with Knights in them. He is so happy there aren’t any giant fights breaking out like some of the stories talked about. Just as she is getting ready to get up and go for some more punch, Annette arrives and says she would get them both a cup. The boisterous redhead sits down and dishes out the latest gossip about who is dancing with who and how Claude pulled Professor Byleth onto the dance floor and now the Professor hasn’t had a chance to sit down since. Hilda comes over, wanting the redheaded mage to go with her for a moment. Annette stands up and starts to follow her, but then she stops, pulling the pink haired gossip queen aside. The music is pretty loud, so she had to tell Hilda two times.

“I can’t. I’m on Grace duty.” Is what Grace heard her say. So that’s why they didn’t let her go to the food or the drinks table. Because she would either make the tables fall over or knock someone into them. Grace’s face feels really hot. It is becoming insufferably stuffy in the ballroom.

“I need to powder my nose.” Grace apologizes to Annette as she quickly stands and runs to the doors. The cold air hits her face like a slap to her cheeks. There are a bunch of other students just hanging out and chatting. A large group of boys are talking loudly amongst themselves. She walks past them, her pace getting quicker and quicker, as soon as she starts to run she falls face first, sliding three feet along the paved ground due to the slippery material of her dress. She stepped on the hem causing the fabric to rip, but she doesn’t care, she has to get away. She hears someone call to ask if she is all right, but she can’t stop. She gets up, running again, losing her shoes. She falls up the stairs to the dorms. She makes it into her room, slamming the door and catching her dress in the doorjamb, ripping it further. She collapses on the floor in front of her door with her dress still stuck in it and cries herself to sleep.

The banging on the door startles her awake. Someone is outside, screaming to get everyone up and armed for battle. Something is terribly wrong. Grace dons her armor, pulls her stupid poufy hair back into a ponytail and jams her new helm on her head. It feels tight on her forehead, probably because her face is still swollen from crying, but it will have to do. She stuffs several throwing axes in her belt and grabs her steel lance and heads out the door. The Professor is at the front gate of the monastery, gathering the Blue Lions to her. Captain Jeralt is with her explaining that there are students seen acting strangely and going to an abandoned chapel that is just beyond the walls of the complex. They are being sent to rescue the students and help defeat the beasts that mysteriously appeared.

The professor tells Grace to go left with Dedue and Dimitri. I guess they’re on Grace duty today, she tells herself.

The three Blue Lions head to the left, putting themselves between a student hiding behind them and the demonic beast that is now glaring at them. Dimitri attacks with his lance, his crest flares and there is significant damage done to the beast. Dedue mightily swings a huge axe at the beast, slicing through the huge creature’s skin and creating a gash in its chest. Grace calls upon her battalion to initiate a gambit. Not only is it successful, but the beast is confused. There is that one small side effect, that being the beast’s full attention is now turned toward her. She’s not afraid.

“YOU!” The angry fighter screams. “Come get some!” Grace runs at the beast as it swipes at her, then lowers its head to bite but it misses. Grace jabs a spear in its eye, the foul creature rears back, taking the human still hanging onto the spear up in the air as it raises its head back. Her weight pulls at the spear, tearing at the monster’s eye socket as the spear comes free of the beast and she falls back to the ground uninjured.

Dedue and Dimitri successfully strike the beast again, having a great vantage point because the beast is not totally focused on them.

Just as the beast’s claw lands next to her, Grace holds her spear still as the beast’s body moves forward over her, the head coming down following the movement of the foot, just in time for her spear to stab through the monster’s throat, then it crumbles before them, falling to dust leaving the body of a student with an academy uniform lying in the center of where the beast once stood.

She doesn’t shake the dust off of her, she strides forward toward the next beast ahead. When she gets close enough she runs towards it and stabs it in the leg.

“Die you evil thing!” Grace screams as she twists her spear in the wound before pulling it back.

Dimitri and Dedue catch up, striking the beast as well. The monster is focused on Grace. It raises its claw to take a swing at her, the claw catches on the tree next to her, stuck deep in the wood. The brunette strikes again, the beast’s throat is open and unguarded. A flash goes off as her aim is true and blood is flowing out of the beast’s throat like a river. The demonic beast is quickly taken down, the student behind it escapes. The one that had turned into the beast is freed from its torment.

Grace is panting looking for any danger in the area. She looks over to Professor Byleth. Jeralt is standing nearby and talking to Monica. She see’s the flash of the Sword of the Creator, Jeralt hitting the ground bleeding and suddenly a pasty white guy grabs Monica and disappears. Everyone is running over to the professor who is overcome with grief at the death of her father.

The next month is severely messed up for everyone. Byleth is mourning the death of Jeralt. The Knights of Seiros are searching for the murderer. The Blue Lions are in a funk over their teacher. Grace spends a lot of time in Abyss. She and Hapi frequently go out and beat up on dead trees. Yuri likes it when she joins him while he plays card games although she’s not sure why because she’s always knocking over bowls of peanuts or her drink, but even after all the mess he keeps dragging her out to the Wilting Rose to play. Balthus likes to spar with her, or as she puts it, use her as a punching bag. It does give her the opportunity to practice her falls and pad her armor some more. Constance asks her to taste a few concoctions she has come up with and so far has survived every one of them.

Early one morning there is a sudden call to arms. there has been activity noted in the Sealed Forest and the Blue Lions are called together to accompany the professor to investigate as the Church has possibly located the girl responsible for Jeralt’s murder. The party engages the demonic beasts, getting better at slaying them quickly. Byleth is at the head of the group, chasing Kronya through the forest. They make it to a clearing surrounded by stone obelisks and that Agarthan guy appears again. It looks like he grabs Kronya and tears out her heart? Next thing they see is that the professor is swallowed up in purple and black magic cloud and then she is…gone! The crazy deadskinned guy argues with the students. Then Dimitri gets really angry and starts screaming at him. Suddenly, BAM, the Professor cuts a hole in the sky and jumps through it to land next to the students. Is that the professor? Why is her hair a different color? More enemies suddenly appear, with everyone working to dispose of them as well.

Grace sets her sights on the closest demonic beast, sending her battalion to attack. Annette is off to her side, getting ready to cast a wind spell at a soldier facing her. Grace screams her name to warn her of a mage behind her casting. The redheaded girl takes a step back and falls on a tree root, and the spell from the enemy mage misses her and kills the soldier that Annette was aiming for. Grace runs her direction and slings an axe into the mage’s chest, removing him from the fight. She helps the fellow Blue Lion back to her feet to help take out the beast. The Lions take out the enemies in between until they are left with the old creepy guy who is threatening the Professor. The Teacher strikes true and ends him as he says his cohort is still here to finish what he started or something like that.

As they are getting ready to go back to the monastery, Professor Byleth is talking to Dimitri and suddenly she faints. Grace could almost swear that Sylvain looked right at her with an accusing look on his face.

Grace leaves the infirmary after getting checked out post battle. She has some bruises, but the training that Professor Byleth taught her a few times really helps her prevent many injuries when she falls, is knocked over or otherwise hits the ground. She is walking past Professor Hanneman’s office and peeks to see if he is inside. No, it could be he’s already left for lunch. She spies the crest analyzer, wondering if he’s fixed it yet. She sticks her hand underneath. It flickers and seems to be showing what looks like a fancy W. Well, ¾ of one any way. Or it could be broken. Who knows. She heads out to the dining hall for lunch. Afterwards she changes clothes then reports to the kitchens. She and Annette are on kitchen duty together. Did someone want to have the entire kitchen burn down? How could the professor even think of putting the two biggest disasters into the same room that also contains fire?

Grace is at the sink washing her gauntlets when Annette arrives. On the menu is Beast Meat Teppanyaki with rice and mixed vegetables. Grace washes the rice and vegetables. She takes the vegetables to the countertop and puts on her left gauntlet. Can’t cut your finger off if there is metal in the way, right? It is slow work, but she makes it through the veggies without getting her blood all over them. Just as the brown haired fighter scoops the vegetables into a bowl, she turns and Annette is reaching over the top of the stove to get some spices. Annette’s clothes are too close to the fire and this spells disaster. Grabbing the red headed mage, she pulls her back just as her skirt had started smoking, Annette’s fingers unfortunately knock a container that falls all over the cooking beast meat, covering half the cooking surface. They rescue the rest of the can, the contents being red-hot peppers.

“Oh no! It’s ruined.” Annette laments.

“Hey some people like it a little extra spicy.” Grace thinks out loud. ”Dimitri will eat anything and so will Raphael, I don’t think it will go to waste. We’ll clean the grill extra good before we put a new pile of meat on to cook.”

The two mistresses of mayhem finish the meal with out burning the kitchen down. They plate and serve the food, the extra spicy meat is placed in a special section with “Xtra Spicy” noted. Professor Byleth arrives just as the first students start lining up for dinner.

“Smells good.” The professor’s eyes light up at the sight of the appealing meal. “And the kitchen is still standing. Great job”

Annette blushes, handing a plate out to her teacher. Grace grins from behind. They’re not going to tell on themselves as Annette hides the singed part of her skirt behind the counter. Once most of the students are fed, they take plates for themselves and have a seat at the Blue Lions normal table.

Ingrid speaks up, “I am happily surprised. This is really tasty.”

“Did you try the spicy meat? Delicious.” Felix says, smiling at Annette briefly before looking away.

“Where’s Sylvain?” Grace asks. She thought he would be there giving her the evil eye again.

“Oh, he said he didn’t want to witness the kitchen blowing up so he left for dinner in town.” Ingrid says with a mouthful.

Professor Byleth isn’t acting like herself. She did not have time to recover from her father’s death, then this sudden change of herself after being sent to the place of darkness. She has become quiet and reserved and acts like she is hiding. Grace knocks on her Professor’s door.

“Come in.” the Professor says quietly.

Grace lets herself in, carrying a full tea service. “I hope you don’t mind. I want to talk with you a bit.”

Byleth points to the small table as Grace sets tea for the two of them. They sit quietly at first, adjusting their tea to the proper sweetness.

“It has been pretty rough for you lately. I hope some company can bring a bit of respite for us both.”

Byleth warms her hands on her teacup. “I don’t want any of this.” Gesturing to her suddenly changed hair color and then waving around her.

“Life isn’t about getting what we want. It is doing the best with what we have. You have lost so much. Your father, these changes that have happened to you. The life you had before you came here. So many people relying on you. When misfortune hits, your world is upside down. That is the time that you need friends to lean on, to listen, to help you follow your heart, what is within you.

When I first came here, I pulled you aside and warned you to watch out for me. That I have a curse, I’m bad luck. Do you remember what you told me?” Grace asks, looking into her teachers sad and tired eyes.

“I told you that there is no such thing as luck, good or bad. That we control our own fates.” Byleth says, taking a big sigh.

“Then I told you that there are many things beyond our control. The flip of a coin, the roll of the dice, sometimes it is simply luck. When it is out of our hands, we have to make the best of it. Keep going, keep moving forward.” The brown haired girl pats her Professor’s cheek.

“I don’t know how you do it. How can you smile after everything? You just, take it all in stride.” Byleth is on the edge of tears.

“I’ve been living with everything going wrong my whole life. I didn’t want to hide away in some cave waiting for death to come strike me down.” Grace reflects, “I want to do something. Focus on helping others instead of looking at my own misery and failings. Coming here, meeting you and everyone else, has given me great faith in my fellow man, shining a light toward the future. I’ve learned much about myself, inside and out. Now look at you. You were quiet, stoic, unemotional. Given a cruel nickname because of it. Now you have so many friends. We all look up to you. You spent a mostly peaceful time with your father, being close with him, spending more time with him than you ever did in the past in spite of your being our professor. You have blossomed, opened up, become emotional. Your father saw that. It really made him happy.”

Byleth holds the teacup to her mouth, taking a deep breath of the aroma before finally taking a sip. “There is just so much at once.”

Grace nods. “That is when you need to refocus your view. Things are always changing. Nothing is ever meant to be the same. You need to make sure that the actions you take now lay the groundwork for a better future. As for me, I just have to be at the right spot at the right time.”

Byleth grabs a cookie. “What have you learned about yourself?”

Grace places a finger on her chin. “My apologies to Professor Hanneman, I think I broke his machine trying to use it, but I believe I do have a crest. I haven’t seen it in any books, but I think it is related to luck somehow. I’ve been trying to control it. I know you’ve noticed it. Have you actually seen it? I have seen Felix’s crest flare a lot, yours, Sylvain’s, Dimitri’s sometimes. I would talk to Felix about how to control it, but everyone is afraid of me.”

“I’m sorry about what happened at the ball, had I known…” Byleth apologizes.

“That was hard, but a lot of good came out of it. Because I was so angry, I found that sometimes I can direct my curs…uh crest at the enemy.” Grace smiles. 

“It is all a matter of adapting to changes.” Byleth finishes her tea. “Thank you.”

Grace gives her Professor a gentle hug, leaving the tea set behind. She knows her limits and a broken tea set is not worth the effort tonight.

Grace parks herself outside of Sylvain’s room. The room of the most notorious flirt in Garreg Mach. The man that has stolen and broken the hearts of countless women. The man that will not give her the time of day if her life depended on it. Shuffling feet are heard heading down the corridor.

“Awww naw.” The redhead is shaking his head. “What do you want?” he grumbles.

“I want to talk to you.”

“I don’t. We have a busy day doing the thing with Rhea. I’m tired and Felix is finished beating me up. I don’t need any more hassles. Go away.” He groans.

“Talk to me.” She pleads.

“You have five minutes.” He unlocks his door and waves inside unceremoniously.

Grace takes a seat at his desk.

“So talk.” He says hands on his hips.

“Why do you hate me?” She asks.

“I don’t.” He says, staring at an interesting spot on the floor.

“You avoid me, you talk smack in front of my face. What did I do to make you so mad?” Her voice gets softer as she speaks, the last word a whisper.

“I’m not mad.” He replies. That spot on the floor, has it always been there? He stares at it like it is intensely interesting.

“Ok. Not mad. What are you then?”

“Nothing. Its..there’s nothing.”

“Nothing. That is about right. I feel like I am invisible to you. Here’s a living breathing female in your room and you won’t even look at me.”

“I…its…strange.” His hand reaches behind his head to rub his neck.

“I am strange.”

“Well, yeah.”

“Look. I’m a person. I’m a teammate. If you have a problem with me, let me know. I deserve at least that. Tell me if you want me to stay away from you and I’ll do my best. Just stop pretending I’m not there.”

He nods.

“Thanks.” She says, barely more than a whisper as she leaves the room, closing the door behind her.

The Blue Lions head to the Holy Tomb. Professor Byleth is to receive a revelation from the goddess there. They dress in their battle gear. The Archbishop leads them deep underneath the monastery, to a huge room with a giant chair at the end of a long series of stone stairs. Byleth is told to sit upon the throne. Nothing happens then suddenly there is the Flame Emperor, a bunch of Imperial soldiers and a fight. The mask of the Flame Emperor is knocked off, Dimitri sees that it is Edelgard, he starts muttering about Duscur, how many people died there, she is the murderer of his family. He starts acting crazy, then the church is fighting with the Empire.

Edelgard proclaims war against the church and any of their allies. There is an army marching towards them from the Empire. The battle at the monastery is horrifying. There seems to be no end to Edelgard’s army reinforcements coming from everywhere. Everything is pure chaos. At some point a terrifying roar is heard as a giant white dragon appears, shooting beams of death out of its mouth, mostly aiming for the empire armies, however if a few allies are in the range, they all are roasted. The ground shakes and quakes with the force of the magic being cast all directions. The earth splits open, cavernous cracks swallow men, women, horses, trees, everything nearby.

“Professor Byleth!” Grace screams, her arm reaching towards the teacher as she disappears from sight into the earth. Grace screams in anger, ruthlessly killing every Adrestian fighter she can reach.

A horn sounds. The Empire calls their retreat. The cleanup of the dead begins. Bodies are burnt to prevent those that feed on carrion to take them away, spreading diseases. Everyone is abandoning the monastery. Many are heading home. The Church will relocate elsewhere. The Blue Lions return to their territories. 

Staying home and being safe feels wrong. Grace heads out to Galatea, fighting the Empire at the borders. Ingrid needs to head to Fraldarius territory and invites her along. They have several skirmishes with random Empire scouting parties along the way, hopefully sending the message back to them to stay home. Reuniting with Felix and paying respects to the Duke, Grace decides to head to the heart of the kingdom to see if she can check on Dimitri. Felix advises he has not heard from him in a while.

Dimitri’s Uncle is ruling the kingdom until Dimitri has come of age. Grace has never seen Fhirdiad, this is the largest city she has ever visited. Having been on the road for days and days, she has run out of clean shirts to wear, donning her former student’s uniform blouse with black pants and leather boots. There is something happening a few streets away and she runs over to see what the noise is all about. A parade of some type is slowly and elegantly marching through the main street of the city. There are soldiers on foot and horseback leading the procession, the highly gilded and beautiful coaches approaching carry the crest of Blaiddyd, the residents of the city are lining the streets to pay their respects. As she stands there watching, Grace feels a hard shove to her back, knocking her forward to land face first on the street, almost in the path of the royal coach.

The coach stops, and the door opens. A red-headed woman looks out the door and frowns, she says something to a soldier on the road before snapping the door shut and urging the carriage forward.

Suddenly Grace feels herself lifted from the ground and carried away to the castle. She is taken straight to the underground prison and thrown into a cell. She is given no explanation. 

She is in a cell for three days. Nobody will tell her what she has done that she is here. She tries to be kind to the guards. A fellow prisoner had thrown a food plate at a guard, cutting his head, so she healed him. Can’t fault him for doing his job.

A few days later, there is a lot of noise. Grace watches as a new prisoner is being brought to the dungeon. It’s Dimitri. He’s badly beaten and bruised. She says nothing to attract his attention. The guards aren’t as mean to her as they are the rowdier prisoners. Every few weeks they allow a cleric to come check the prisoners. As the cleric is finished checking her, they head out the cell, she calls to the guard, distracting him. She stops and thanks him for his kindness. She doesn’t remind him he forgot to lock her door when the cleric had left.

The same night there is a disturbance in the dungeon. A wall is broken through and several large men from Duscur are in the dungeon. Grace heads out to help them release Dimitri and flee. Everyone is almost outside of the walls of the castle, Grace yells at Dedue who suddenly trips over debris on the ground, and Cornelia’s soldier misses decapitating the huge armored ally. Grace, Dimitri and a few Duscur men are loaded into the back of a wagon. Grace heals Dimitri as best as she can. He is still talking crazy things about Edelgard and getting revenge on her killing his family. Dimitri is very angry, now saying Grace is working with Edelgard. Dedue says he will work with Dimitri, but perhaps Grace should go her own way. She hugs the tall Duscur man and his friends, thanking them for helping her escape.

Heading the opposite direction of the wagon she walks toward what she hopes is the south. There are signs of a village ahead. Walking down the street, there are not many people about. With a war going on, that is not surprising. She turns around to begin to walk back up the street, but there is a small cabin Grace don’t remember seeing when she walked past before. A very old and wrinkled woman is sitting on a chair, sipping tea. The brunette wonders how the woman can hold her cup, her hands are so wrinkled and bent with old age. She lifts her head, here eyes are white, void of any pupils.

“You.” The wavering voice calls out. “Speak with me” She says as she hobbles to the door, opening it and gesturing for the young woman to enter.

Grace follows her into the dark shack. There is a small stone circle in the room with a fire burning in the middle, providing a flickering light that makes the things on the walls look eerie. She sits on a low three legged stool, gesturing for the young woman to sit across from her on the ground. The elder tells Grace to select four bottles from around the room. Grace first chooses a bottle that has some green and sparkly looking glass or crystals. The second has something resembling buttons that are Faerghus blue. The third has a sand-like white powder inside, she really liked the writing on it, even if she cannot not read it. The last has had a strange metal in it, the jar is very heavy even though it is small. Those are the ones that she felt drawn to she thinks as she hands them to the woman. The old woman opens each bottle, pouring them into a large clay bowl. She mixes them with a wooden spoon, not that they mix well. Placing a metal plate over the top of the fire, she carefully centers the bowl over the heart of the fire. The elder sits and closes her eyes, her twisted hands resting on her knees. 

Nothing happens at all for a few minutes. Grace is afraid to say anything, afraid to move, not certain as to what this is about in the first place and thinking if she does move, she’ll probably knock something over. Her eyes move back and forth from the bowl to the woman. Suddenly the bowl starts to smoke. The smoke is white, then blue then black. A woosh sound happens and the contents burst into flames that rise several feet above the bowl. You remember seeing a bucket of sand to your left, you grab it and throw it into the burning bowl, extinguishing the fire immediately. Your eyes are slightly blinded from it being so bright from the flames, the light is now extinguished and the room is dark except for the small fire below. Grace silently looks to the woman. The blank eyes stare at her.

“The items called to you, you chose them. Things were wrong. You corrected the wrong. Now things are right.” The elder takes a thick cloth, grabbing the bowl, then turning the contents of the bowl onto the ground.

The heat of the flames caused the items to melt together. There is a circular ring shape had been formed by the melted items. The woman reaches out with a long stick, tapping the circle then lifting it from the sand. She takes it in her hands and places it in yours. It is the shape of the letter M, the outside lines curve outward. There is an extra piece of line on the right side top point. If it were not for that piece, it would be symmetrical, like every other crest.

“Place your finger over the unmatched piece.” The woman’s voice rings in Grace’s head. “You are the key. You must have control over the crest to invoke it, to make it function properly. Without giving it direction, it acts in pure chaos. Crests are not blessings. Not curses, they are simply remnants of the blood lines of ages past. The bearer chooses to learn how to use the crest, ignore it, or suffer from it. Some are easily used, the bearer can invoke it at will. Others suffer from them, unable to control them, being invoked when it is not of their will. Others can ignore them as the circumstances never warrant their appearance or use in their stations and duties of life. Yours is difficult to ignore. But you are learning, you can control it. You are understanding that for every action there is a reaction. In the influence of the action, the reaction is altered. The good fortune of one is the misfortune of another. Misfortune can cause good fortune. You know you must always be aware of what is around you. Use it to your advantage. “

Grace thanks the woman for the help and offers to help her in return, the woman refuses.

Grace heads back towards home. Working with mercenary groups, fighting Empire spies or troops whenever they can. Finds out that while she was imprisoned Dimitri had been sentenced to death. It was said he was killed for killing his uncle, but she knows that to be false. Time passes. Finally, time for millennium festival,

Grace heads back to the monastery. She is a few weeks early for the Millennium Festival. Finding Dedue and Dimitri there engaged in a battle she runs to join them with her mercenaries. Some of her mercs leave heading for other adventures, some stay, wanting to support the fight against the Empire.

The Blue Lions arrive, so does Byleth who speaks with Dimitri. Dimitri is heavily stressed, tormented by the ghosts of the past, but not quite mad. He is angry and sleeps little, but still somewhat human.

The church army and supporters arrive, bringing forces to help. There ae so many battles. One runs into the next. People have grown older, matured. Changed. And yet they remain the same.

Grace walks the camp perimeter with another soldier a few hours after the sun has set. Tomorrow they are going to take the bridge at Myrddin. Grace tells a joke to the female knight who laughs softly, not wanting to make too much noise as they patrol the area. Suddenly they both stop as they hear the approach of an armored person.

“Hey ladies, want a little company?” Sylvain grins until he gets closer, realizing Grace is there. He stops in his tracks.

“We would be happy if you came along.” Grace smiles. She grabs him by the elbow, encouraging the female knight to join her by grabbing the other.

Trapped, Sylvain walks along between the two ladies. After a few minutes of silence, he cannot help himself and begins chatting with the beautiful and charming knight hanging off his arm. Grace’s grip slips from the other elbow as she steps quietly behind them by a few paces. It is quiet except for Sylvain’s whispers.

Grace stands still, watching and listening. She turns and runs towards the edge of the wood ahead, hearing the sound of bottles hitting the ground. This is followed by someone running through the underbrush, attempting to escape. Grace throws an axe towards the sound, followed by a second and third weapon flying through the air. There is a cry of pain, drawing Grace to the location of the intruder. The dim light of the moon reveals an assassin. They reach for a hidden dagger, they can’t unsheathe it because slick blood on their fingers. The brown haired woman flips the assailant on his stomach, pulling both arms behind him as Sylvain runs up to assist her. Just as they start to pull the enemy to their feet, the black clad male falls deadweight to the ground, mouth foaming as he chokes on his blood.

“Looks like he poisoned himself so he couldn’t be questioned.” Sylvain mutters as he drags the body to the edge of the woods to be dealt with in the morning. Sylvain stays with Grace as the knight runs off to report the disturbance.

The two remaining stand awkwardly in place. Sylvain shifts from one foot to the other before rubbing the back of his neck.

“So, it’s been a while.” Sylvain says. He’s never been much for things being too quiet.

“Yeah. Haven’t seen you since the war started.” Grace concurs as she looks into the distance, watching for anything else hiding in the wood.

“You’ve certainly improved.” The redhead says warily, his mouth still open, then he looks away.

Grace frowns. “Finish it.”

“Huh? Finish what?” Sylvain pretends to be looking at something the opposite direction of the woman.

“What you were going to say.” Grace frowns.

“Okay. So that encounter didn’t have a disaster.” The redhead’s shoulders droop. That was exactly what was on his mind.

Grace bites her lip and swallows. She knew that was what he was thinking.

“Ya gotta admit, back at the academy you were a disaster magnet. If anything could go wrong, it did. If it didn’t happen to you, it happened to those around you. Sure, some of it was funny, but” Sylvain stops as Grace slaps her hand over his mouth.

“I get it.” The brunette blushes with embarrassment. “But think about it. Who got hurt except for me?”

“Well,” The cavalier thinks. “Dedue fell but he was okay. Felix…nah he was fine. Gilbert…he made it out okay. Annette, well, she fell over barrels without you.”

“Okay. Let me add this to the mix. Dimitri is the strongest guy around. His crest gives him great strength. It’s great when he is taking down enemies, but he can hardly hold a teacup, he is terrified of petting a dog or cat because he never knows when his crest is going to activate.”

“Yeah, so what?” Sylvain complained.

“I have the world’s worst crest and I’m trying to control it.” Grace explains.

Their conversation is cut short as multiple soldiers, some with lanterns, arrive at the scene, several head into the woods searching for enemy troops. The patrolling women are led back to the center of camp to provide their statements to the sergeants and then released.

Sylvain walks Grace back to her tent. She stops outside the tent flap, turning to the tall redhead.

“Byleth has us working together tomorrow.” The shorter woman confesses. “I don’t want you to have a problem with it.”

Sylvain plants a hand on his chest, “I promise, I will go into the battle with a completely open mind.”

They bid each other goodnight.

The army awakens just before dawn, tearing down tents and on the move as quickly as possible. They arrive at the bridge and begin the assault on the empire soldiers. Everyone is quick to follow Byleth’s orders to the letter. Enemy soldiers are falling like dominoes. Grace is alongside of Sylvain, Felix and Byleth are just ahead and to the right. Sylvain’s lance finishes an empire knight when everyone suddenly hears a ruckus from behind. Reinforcements have arrived, led by Acheron.

The Blue Lions turn to face the enemy reinforcements that have come from behind. Acheron is on horseback, driving forward the furthest, just in front of Grace.

“Acheron!” the brunette woman screams with a face filled with anger. The Lord begins to cast dark magic, his horse sensing magic and danger, certainly not having been trained to be a mages warhorse, rears up, sending its rider hurdling to the ground. Before the lord can move Grace’s strike ends his life.

Sylvain gasps at what he has just witnessed. Then shakes his head and gets back in the battle, driving forward on his horse and striking an empire soldier, piercing him through to the other side.

Byleth calls for them to head to the ballista along with Ashe. Sylvain is ahead of those on foot, taking out an enemy mage while the others catch up. Ash runs up to the chest, opening and removing the contents. Grace moves ahead catching up to Sylvain. She sees in the distance a flash of dazzling golden-red hair on a horse as Ferdinand rides up to the end of the bridge to join the Empire’s main forces. Lorenz and several Empire fighters also appear, waiting for their group on the side to approach.

“I, Lorenz Hellman Gloucester have arrived to join the battle in my father’s stead.” The pompous noble announces.

“Lorenz, cut the crap. We’ve got the Professor and we are going to win. Tell your dad to forget about being with the losing side, the Empire.” Grace yells at the purple haired cavalier.

“I have no choice but to follow the Empire if I wish to live.” Lorenz retorts.

Ashe fires an arrow, wounding the purple haired noble in the shoulder.

“Lorenz!” Grace pleads.

“I cannot.” Lorenz laments. He spurs his horse forward, lowering his lance at the woman, however the spur breaks, the remaining metal stabs deep into the flank of the beast, causing it to rear up on its hind legs. The noble is thrust into the air, his grip on the saddle slickened by the blood on his hand from Ashe’s arrow. Lorenz falls, striking his head and losing consciousness.

Grace runs to his side. “I will take care of him.” She says, pulling out her first aid kit, leaving Ashe and Sylvain to approach the empire’s troops from another side. Sylvain rides over to the fray. The Blue Lions rejoined are attacking the enemy forces from two sides. Ladislava falls quickly.

Taking over the Great Bridge cuts the Empire off from the alliance. Perhaps this will sway the war into the kingdom’s favor and gain assistance from the alliance, especially since they have Lorenz, whose father was a huge holdout regarding joining or fighting the empire. Taking the bridge cuts off a major route for food and supplies to aid the Empire. A double win.

Hastily thrown together and tasting like nothing in particular stew is dinner for the army. Grace grabs her dish and waterskin taking a seat on a large rock not too far away.

Sylvain plunks down on the ground next to her. “So how did you know? If his spur hadn’t broke that could have gone so many different ways.” He looks completely mystified at the woman sitting next to him.

“That’s just it. I didn’t. Things just…happen.” She answers.

“Maybe it was just a coincidence.” He ponders.

“Yeah.” Grace grumbles. “My life is filled with one coincidence after another. Two horses in one day. Wonder what the odds are.”

Sylvain frowns, his eyebrows knitting together as he thinks.

“I’m just saying…” the brunette woman walks back to the medical tent to see if she can provide assistance.

Gronder Field is the next major battle. The Kingdom and the Alliance are heavily focused on taking out the Empire. There are a few skirmishes between the two factions, however they both concentrate their attacks on who they feel the true enemy is during this battle. The Emperor is sent running with very few of her troops that she had brought with her able to accompany/shield her.

The Blue Lions focus on reclaiming the capital from there. The city is in flames, the Empire will destroy the heart of the Kingdom regardless of who is the winner of the battle. Giant mechanical Golems are rolling about the streets striking at and crushing everything in their path. Several are taken down by the army of the Lions. The battle intensifies as they get closer and closer to the front of the palace where Cornelia lies in wait.

Grace ducks as a huge Golem attacks her, the mechanical monstrosity reaches out to grab her and gets its metal claw wedged in a tight spot between two parts of a large fountain. As it tries to retract the arm, it throws the Golem off balance causing it to fall over. It lies on the ground unable to right itself. This reduces the range of the arms and limits the range of the metallic appendages. The army is able to take it down much easier now.

The Lions regroup and head towards Cornelia. Felix and Sylvain come in from the right. Byleth Dimitri and Dedue are heading up center and Grace and Annette head in from the left. Cornelia has fighters in front of her, archers behind. Sylvain and Felix head up to take down the archers. The heavily armored fighters and Byleth head for those stopping them from reaching Cornelia. There is a huge marble column between Grace and Cornelia.

“Hey bitch!” Grace calls out the evil mage.

Annette gasps as she takes a few steps back.

“I’ll take good care of you.” Cornelia says as she casts Death.

“Annette, Wind!” Grace screams as Cornelia’s powerful spell heads her way while she ducks behind the pillar. Just as Cornelia’s spell hits, so does Annette’s. The tall column of stone begins to topple over, the wind guiding it directly into the redheads dark mage. Cornelia is crushed as her surrounding fighters are demolished by the Blue Lions.

“Mind your language, Grace.” Dimitri frowns at her.

The celebration begins as soon as the fighting ends. Dimitri is accepted by his people. Byleth and the army settles in the palace after cleaning out the remainder of the Empire’s occupants. There is a huge celebration going on all over the city. The citizens, having always been loyal to their king, are thrilled that he has returned and soon will claim his crown.

Grace runs up to the redheaded cavalier. “Dija see that Sylvain? So many coincidences. Hmmmm.”

The tall man dismounts. “It’s too hard to believe, but too real not to believe.”

“I’m telling you. Its my crest!” Grace rambles, “I’m getting it under control and its benefitting me. I just have to be aware of what’s around me at all times.” She steps back into a flowerpot and falls over. But before she hits the ground, Sylvain grabs her and pulls her up. She’s still off balance and slams into his chest. “Okay. I did not know it was back there.”

“You’re kinda cute when you have panic all over your face.” He grins.

Grace can only blush as she tries to steady herself on her feet. Sylvain pats her on her shoulder one more time to steady her before he leads her to the celebration inside the palace.


End file.
